Naji Al-Ali�s charicatures historical witness
He was critical, scathingly critical, left nothing untouched. The United States, Israel, the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) all had their share of Nagi Al-Ali�s uncompromising, and fateful candor. To treat your �enemy� and liberation organization on a level playing field, especially if you are a world-famous charicaturist, is more than autocracy can swallow. Al-Ali was silenced forever in London on 28 August, 1987, on the threshold of his world-platform, the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas newspaper.
The Threshold of Creativity
Perhaps suffering is the threshold that launches creativity. At least, this seems to be the case with many Palestinian poets and artists, including Mahmoud Darwish, Samih Al Qasem, Emile Habiby and others, who molded the suffering under occupation, deportation and dispossession, into creative models unprecedented in modern Arab history.
That basically spells the story of Nagi Al-Ali. He was born in Shajara, a northern Palestinian village that fought fiercely against Israeli occupation, until its inhabitants fled to Lebanon. Shajara saw the erection of the first Israeli settlement.
Al-Ali was born in 1936 in these oppressive surroundings when his family fled with the rest of the village to the Lebanese refugee camp of Ein El-Hilweh, which later figured frequently in his charicatures. In 1963, El-Ali had his first break when he started to work as a reporter for the Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Talee�ah. Al-Ali moved through several Kuwaiti newspapers before rewinding steps back to Beirut, Lebanon, to draw for Al-Safeer.
In 1982, Israel raided Lebanon to drive Palestinian Liberation Organization freedom fighters out. Al-Ali was on the run once more, heading back to Kuwait to work for the renowned Al-Qabas newspaper. In 1985, he was stationed to the paper�s international offices in London, where his fate was sealed.
An Enduring Figure
Among Ali-Ali�s most haunting figures is Hanthala, a witness to the atrocities that befell Palestinians and Arabs alike. Al-Ali usually represents him in the foreground, hands tied behind back, shabby clothing and a few spikes of hair. Hanthala is indeed a haunting figure, a constant reminder that political agendas often fly over the masses.
Ali-Ali is quoted as having said �My ideas are sometimes provocative, other times revolutionary. My main concern is for my charicatures to reach across all social strata.�
��..like a multi-handed Indian deity��
Name the strangest wish. Al-Ali had stranger: �I wish I was like a multi-handed Indian deity, in each a pen, to draw more and more.� In the after-fact, Al-Ali�s statement is indeed premonitory � he knew of his impending end. Nonetheless, he has completed more than 40,000 charicatures adamantly pronouncing his recalcitrance and uncompromising stance towards the Arab-Israeli conflict and the suffering of the Palestinian people. His icon, Hanthala and his drawings will be a rival witness to a history painted by the mass media.
ARABIA ONLINE 12 August 1997